PTINs – Online Registration System for Paid Preparers is Up!

[TaxMama Note: This applies to everyone – EAs, CPAs, attorneys, licensed, as well as unlicensed preparers. Do not rush to register unless you need a PTIN to take the EA Exam. The system is jammed. Your current PTIN will work just fine until you update your registration.]

A new online system for paid tax return preparers to register with the IRS and obtain a preparer tax identification number (PTIN) is now available on IRS.gov. All paid preparers, including those who already have a PTIN, should sign-up on the system by Jan. 1, 2011. There is a new annual user fee of $64.25 for a PTIN.

Receipt of a PTIN will be immediate after successful online registration. Or a paper application may be submitted on Form W-12, IRS Paid Preparer Tax Identification Number Application, with a response time of four to six weeks. Before registration, applicants should consider that the date the PTIN is assigned is established as the annual renewal date.

For access to the new system and more information, see the Tax Professionals page on IRS.gov.

2 thoughts on “PTINs – Online Registration System for Paid Preparers is Up!”

Online Registration Errors:
-Server Error 500 – Last week Thursday and Friday, I kept getting Server Error 500 – I figured out: Someone may be using the username you selected (someone else is using taxmama1. Huh????) –
-Try using your email address instead. Taxmama1 get giving me an error – using any email address at all did not. So, server Error 500 seems to mean someone has already selected your password
– I did not get the emails containing the password. So, I tried the log-in system and asked for a new password. Still didn’t work.
– Gmail didn’t receive the password, (not in the spam folder) so I tried using a different email address – using a taxmama.com email address finally worked and the system sent me the password.
– OK…next error…despite entering the correct mailing address (from the tax return), age, SSN, filing status, etc. it didn’t seem to find my information in the system. I wonder if it’s because I am the second name on the tax return?

PHONE SYSTEM ERRORS:
– I called this morning. It took about 15-20 minutes to reach someone. OK, I’ll live. It’s Monday morning, after all.
– I told the woman who answered that I made my entries into the system and it was not able to locate my information.
– She asked if I need help logging in.
– I told her that I have no problem logging in – but once in, the system can’t match my information to the database.
– She was fixated on my logging in problem that I told her repeatedly is not a problem.
– She decided to try to locate me in the system and asked for my first name. Wonder of wonders, she couldn’t find me. She never asked for my last name….that might have helped.
– She went off to talk to a supervisor and came back more than 5 minutes later.
– I asked her, is there a problem if you are not the primary name on the tax return.
– She replied, oh, you are not a signer on the tax return? (Did they actually TRAIN these people????)
– Then she went back to offering to help me log in.

Anyway, I should probably know better. (And have advised people to wait a couple of months.) But since some of my students still need to get PTINs now so they can sit for the exam, I thought I’d try the system to see what they will experience. Wow!!!! It’s pretty bad.